For anyone using a pre-April 2020 version of Zoom so that they can still use ManyCam as a virtual camera on their Macs, Zoom just announced today that Zoom 5.0 will be a forced upgrade for anyone wanting to join a meeting that employs the new encryption.

I’m new to both Zoom and ManyCam, so I don’t know if there’s a workaround or planned update that will allow me to use ManyCam with Zoom Webinar. But my current workaround, running a March version of Zoom, won’t work past May.

Here’s the text of their announcement:

Dear Valued Customer,
We are excited to announce that Zoom 5.0 is live, and wanted to take a moment to highlight some critical information regarding this latest release .

When:
On April 27, 2020, Zoom released Zoom 5.0, setting a new standard in video communications security. Beginning May 30th, 2020, Zoom will be enabling **[GCM encryption] across the entire Zoom platform, providing increased protection for meeting data.
Please begin updating all your clients to Zoom 5.0 *** . After May 30, 2020, all Zoom clients on older versions will receive a forced upgrade when trying to join meetings as GCM Encryption will be fully enabled across the Zoom platform.

Perhaps we could point out to Zoom that other similar apps (webex, gotomeeting, etc.) that support Virtual Cams. This could be used against them in marketing and hence it would be good for business to also support this. If there is a security issue with Virtual Cams, they might want to explain this to ManyCam developers and see what could be done.

Thought, perhaps ManyCam could support one of the following ideas:

Provide a mode where the “preview” is in a window by itself. That would allow us to share the Apps window using Share Screen. This should be easy to support. Perhaps not perfect, but decent.

Support the notion of AirPlay. I don’t know if this is possible, but I think I’ve seen some 3rd party devices that support AirPlay. So perhaps this is an alternative to VirtualCams.

Have found that if you unsign the apps from the command line, it allows the use of third-party libraries. You’ll need XCode command line tools installed.

sudo codesign --remove-signature /Applications/zoom.us.app

I note that this worked for me last week, but upon loading Zoom this morning, it’s not recognising the Virtual Camera again. Just went through the process and it’s working - although for me, when I do this, the video in ManyCam freezes and I have to shutdown both ManyCam and Zoom to get it working again. Once ManyCam Virtual Camera is selected in the Zoom preferences, it all seems fine.

I also note in other threads, that ManyCam “don’t condone” the unsigning of third-party apps. Fair enough. Buyer beware until there’s a better option in place.

Having said the above, I think that Zoom’s support for virtual backgrounds is pretty good - particularly if you have a green screen. You don’t get the other fruit like lower thirds - so there’s that.

I’d like to be notified if/when you hear from Zoom if they will support virtual cameras. That is my main platform. If I can’t use a virtual camera with Zoom, I don’t have nearly as much use for the Manycam software.

I’d like to hear what other users of ManyCam Studio have moved onto (from zoom).

Having invested in greenscreens, common classroom virtual background sets with positioned newsdesk greenscreen blackboards for video inlays and training faculty in their use… I’ve already moved on from:“…if zoom disables Virtual Camera support from my purchased Pro version Advanced settings as an over-ride then I will of course have to disable zoom as a used application for our classroom progress.”